I haven’t been able to do my weekly trip to the botanical gardens this winter because the weather has been bad on Tuesday mornings. This is the morning that the garden opens an hour earlier so I can walk around when the temp is cooler and the harsh Florida sun a little lower in the sky.
Yesterday it was raining in the morning so I spent some time going through old photo files and deleting the ones I will never use. I decided to post an image from the first visit (of two) this season – to brighten the day of family and friends who are living in the north. This is the closest I can come to sending you some of our sunshine.
I find it interesting how, given time, many of my photos don’t seem as wonderful as they did when I took them. Some photos that I thought would make a good story never got published because the story fell flat. And the most encouraging reason why I can delete most of my old photos is because I have taken better ones of the same subject. That means that I am continually learning and improving. I am also willing to delete many that don’t make the grade because I can return to the place where I took the picture and capture a better image of a similar object.
I have more trouble slimming down my files of travel photos. I won’t be going back, getting another chance to do a better composition with better focus and light. These photos will never make National Geographic, they aren’t even good enough to print. But they elicit a memory, a mood, a laugh. I want to keep them because they help me remember a special time and place. I am culling these down but not as ruthlessly.
This clean-up is with some anxiety because I use Lightroom and it is a very different software beast. I am doing another read of my favorite Lightroom book in an attempt to better understand how to manage files on my hard drive and the processing data in Lightroom that applies to the originals on the hard drive. I have been known to cry when it appears that I’ve messed this process up royally. I wonder if there are personal Lightroom trainers to help me strengthen my file managing muscles.
A New Day: Living Life Almost Gracefully 
I don’t do fancy stuff with my photos, but with my phone have a zillion too many. Some day I will sort them and delete. Ha.Can identity with your having lots.
LikeLike
Haha – I just culled some files before reading this. They have been in my ‘flowers’ folder for years.
I use Lightroom (mostly I use Photoshop, though) and I always reference the files from their original source. I don’t use the Lightroom categorisation: I use the native folder system on my Mac because I have got used to it. For example, with my Nikon files, they are all in a NEF folder. Nested within that are the various types – flowers, animals, etc.
Then for specific events such as a trip somewhere, I keep a folder under that name.
It’s not a perfect system but it generally enables me to find things. There is a tagging system built into OS 10 on the Mac, but the thought of going through everything is too much – I quake at the thought of doing that. š
LikeLike
You use the same system/work flow that I use. I just can’t get my brain around the categorization system no matter how often I try. I keep thinking there is a simple explanation that I’m missing. Anyway, I tend to get into trouble when I combine or move files – sometimes BIG trouble. I use the tags in Lightroom that helps me find some specific photos. Thanks for brightening my day with your comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pat, culling is my least favorite activity …..
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like to cull when life is messy – like during especially nasty election years. It is my attempt to bring order to the world. I should get a lot of culling done this year.
LikeLike
Culling photos is tough because they do elicit memories and feelings. It’s definitely easier when you know you can go make better ones.
You might consider following http://asktimgrey.com/. I know you’re looking for a personal assistant, but he often has tips about LR that I didn’t know, and you can write in for help on tricky bits š
LikeLike
Thanks, Heather. Nice to hear from you. š
LikeLike
Like you, I’ve become ruthless in my cleanup of photos. I love Lightroom, but its file storage is a code that’s hard to crack! I guess it’s to make sure we don’t delete something important. It’s a lot easier on Mac’s Photos app – I get way too many phone photos, but they’re easily deleted from the hard drive. I used to be paranoid about losing photos, but now I wonder who will really care when I’m gone. How many photos of the forest behind my house do I really need to keep? Thank you for that lovely water lily.
LikeLike
Your comment reminded me of the photos I took of a couple with their phone. I pressed the icon and waited for it to focus – taking about 50 photos of them. I felt sorry for them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Adobe provides some excellent training videos on LR and a number of photographers offer lessons of many of the aspects of LR online for free…nothing like having a virtual ‘house-call’ for a professional photographer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks – I knew there were videos. I need a personal trainer to hook their computer onto mine and then I can say, “How do I create a file one level up and move these photos to there so everything is in the same place – both in Lightroom Library and my pictures on my hard drive. See, this folder right there. Yes that one.” Maybe my granddaughter can help me as she is learning Lightroom in highschool. š By the way, I always smile when I see you in my comments. Thanks.
LikeLiked by 2 people